Posts By St. Emilie's CPS

DID YOU KNOW THAT MORE THAN 105,000 AUSTRALIANS SLEEP ROUGH EACH NIGHT OF THE YEAR?

That’s 1 in 200 people every night including thousands of families… 44% of homelessare women 27% are children

Can you imagine not having a home to go to? Not being able to choose where you sleep, what you eat or being able to be in a safe environment. This is the reality for many people in our local community – and sadly, the numbers are growing.

Homelessness is a problem often overlooked and misunderstood by the wider community. Our Sleep-out Against Homelessness has allowed our Year 5 & 6 students to experience, in a very small way, homelessness for themselves – ‘sleeping/living rough’ – for a night.

Through a series of planned experiences our students have been able to deepen their understanding of the paralysing effects of homelessness and develop a greater sense of our shared responsibility for those less fortunate than we are. By experiencing what it feels like to sleep out, have limited choice of food, lack of personal hygiene opportunities etc we have been able to better recognise homelessness as something that could happen to anyone, and something we can all seek to resolve, living out the words of Jesus… when I was hungry, you gave me to eat...

Our very own St Emilie’s Years 4 to 6 Band saw their many hours of dedicated practise truly pay off when they took the stage at the Performing Arts Festival.

Under the special guidance of Mr Nick Dabbs, they were not prepared to let the fact they were the only Primary School band on the program get the better of them. They combined, beautifully, to provide wonderful renditions of South Africa and Calypso that were both melodic and highly entertaining.

Thank you to all band members for representing yourselves, and our school, so well – both on and off the stage. Thank you also to the many proud parents who came along to support.

Finally, a huge thank you to Mr Dabbs! We greatly appreciate the time, energy, creativity and passion you give to nurturing our children’s love of music and the Arts. The fruits of your labour were certainly on show today!

Congratulations and well done to all members of our Cross Country Team who braved Friday’s wild, windy weather to represent St Emilie’s at Friday’s Inter-school Carnival. Your combined efforts helped us to achieve a very credible second place – overall.

Our Team Captains, Taylah and Taj, lead by example – winning their respective races in style. Our other runners also placed well.

Thank you to Mr Paul Davis for his great organisation, and for running our well attended before school training sessions. Thank you also to Mrs Harvey, Miss Ryan, Miss

who looked after the team and acted as marshals and place judges.

2018, could very well be our opportunity to take out the top spot – so start training everyone!

The Sacrament of Reconciliation was described by Pope Francis as a special way to enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands.

During Week Two of this term, many of our Year Three children received this beautiful sacrament for the first time. They then celebrated, with family and friends, during the weekend’s Thanksgiving Masses.

Thank you to Miss Tiana Massimi and Miss Chantelle Goodall for their special efforts in preparing the children and journeying, with families, throughout the sacramental program. We sincerely thank Mrs Lyn Harkins, our Parish Sacramental Coordinator.

Thank you, also, to Father Chien and Father Giovanni for their valuable input to preparations and for their spiritual guidance.

We hope this sacrament will continue to be a source of comfort, peace and renewal for them all now and into the future.

The important work being carried out at St Emilie’s, under the guidance of Mrs Kerrie Cogger, to assist our children to understand water as a precious commodity we must preserve and use responsibly, was formally recognised at our recent assembly. It was a special occasion with Mrs Tracy Martino, a St Emilie’s parent, being part of the delegation from the Water Corporation. Please follow the link below to view the related media release. Well done, St Emilie’s – well done, Mrs Cogger!!

On Tuesday 6 June, staff of St Emilie’s, and Salvado College, joined together to learn from world renowned mathematical expert, Dr Paul Swan. The focus of the day was assisting children to acquire and successfully apply, important mathematical knowledge and skills, now and into the future.

Dr Swan suggested there are a number of ways parents can support their child in Mathematics. These included learning basic facts such as ‘Friends of Ten’ and ‘Times Tables’, telling the time, and providing real life experiences with money.

This week we celebrated the life of St Emilie de Vialar in the lead up to her Feast Day on the 17 June. St Emilie saw Jesus in every person, and lived her life loving and serving those in need. Her life was not always easy, but she remained committed to doing good in the world and extended the touch and love of Jesus to all she encountered.

St Emilie is the ultimate role-model for each and every one of us and for our community as a whole.

On Tuesday, Michael Mangan visited St Emilie’s and performed for, and with, our Pre-Primary to Year 6 classes. Michael is a world renowned songwriter and performer who aims to help children to celebrate our faith and love of God through music and song. We absolutely loved his performance and thoroughly enjoyed singing along with his new, and old, songs.

On Wednesday, the Year 1 to 6 classes celebrated a special Mass together. A big thank you to our Year 2 and Year 6 children, and their teachers, for preparing and leading this special Eucharistic Celebration, and honouring St Emilie in such a beautiful way. Thank you also to all parents and parishioners who attended and to Father Chien, Adolph our Acolyte, those who served, read, Mr Dabbs and the choir, and everyone who added, in various ways, to the sacredness of this very special celebration.

Fridaysaw the staff and students start their day energetically. After our whole group dance-ercise session, Pre-Primary to Year 6 children participated in activities, within their House groups. Thank you to Steph, Jacob and all St Emilie’s staff for organising and leading these activities. After recess we worked in our Buddy groups. This session was centred on prayer – and the Life of St Emilie. Thanks again to all staff members for organising and leading this very important aspect of the day’s celebrations.

Thank you to everyone who supported our appeal for LifeLink and our local SVDP by donating $2.00 and non-perishable food items.

We look forward to continuing the legacy of St Emilie by working to help those less fortunate than ourselves.